Record industry to pit proprietary CMX against Apple's Cocktail

Four of the world's largest record companies have come together to create a new digital album format that will give customers lyrics, artwork and videos, in an effort to compete with Apple's own similar project, code-named "Cocktail."

The record companies reportedly approached Apple with their concept, but the iPod-maker allegedly rejected the proposal. In a report from The Times in the U.K., Sony, Warner, Universal and EMI detail CMX — their own independent response created by Apple's supposed rejection.

"Apple at first told us they were not interested," an unnamed record label insider reportedly said, "but now they have decided to do their own, in case ours catches on."

He continued: "Ours will be a file that you click on, it opens and it would have a totally brand new look, with a launch page and all of the different options. When you click on it, you're not just going to get the ten tracks, you're going to get the artwork, the video and mobile products."

The four record companies reportedly approached Apple about their concept 18 months ago, but they were rebuffed by the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. The report does not state whether the record companies' new format would work with iTunes or on iPods.

Apple's alleged response, under the codename "Cocktail," also aims to bundle special extras with downloads, in an effort to rekindle sales of entire albums, which have given way to purchases of digital singles. The effort is purportedly a multi-party collaboration between Apple, EMI, Sony, Warner and Universal — the same four also behind CMX.

Cocktail is rumored resemble an app, and will include both the usual notes but also separate lyrics, photos and other material that listeners could navigate outside of the usual iTunes player. It would even be possible to play all the songs from this environment. Reports suggest Cocktail could be ready by September, when Apple is expected to debut new iPods.

The record companies' own CMX will see a soft launch with a small number of releases in November. Reportedly, one of the first offerings could be a new U2 album.

"We are not going out in force, the source told The Times. What you are going to see is a couple of releases thrown out there to see what people like. We are working with the retailers now."

with apple's marketshare, where will you play the "open" format? and the days of the stand alone music player are long gone. the cheapo hardware is so powerful today that the music player is just another app.

and i don't see any value in this either. I want something like a DVD to replace the CD where i get the music in better quality than the CD, videos and whatever else they can think up of with the ability to transfer this to any cell phone and PC to listen to on the go or at work

I don't get why this news is getting as much coverage as it is. Anything new that they come up with that has DRM and doesn't quite frankly work with iTunes/iPod, is doomed anyway. Move along - nothing to see here. As the young-uns say: epic fail

Hey music companies, we have a digital music format, it's called "mp3s" sheesh

The whole concept is shaky at best. Apple is the only company with any possibility of making it viable. However the idea will not work unless the artists embrace it and make it in to a thing of real value, like many did with record covers. If there is any whiff of this being simply a cynical exercise to sell the filler tracks on an album then, indeed yes... epic fail.

They just don't get it, do they? The fact is that the music industry has become so powerful that they direct the artists on what THEY want them to do and it's become so bland and lifeless that people just don't care. The days are gone when artists actually had control of their own direction and produced blockbuster albums like Led Zeppelin IV, Exile On Mainstreet, Back In Black, Who's Next... They now commercialize it so heavily, yet the content just isn't there and people avoid buying the crap. They now pick and choose what they want to listen to, avoiding all the fluff and saving money in the process.

If the music industry wants to move forward, they need to stop paying people like Simon Cowell and Clive Davis ridiculous sums of money to chew up and spit out acts that never have any staying power because they're pulling the strings instead of the artists. We'll never have another Led Zeppelin or Micheal Jackson as long as they do.

On top of that, what's the point of pushing a format not compatible with iPod? Hasn't the other manufacturers all but given up? Who actually buys a competing product?

Why do we even need recording labels these days? The equipment to produce your own music is definitely coming down in price to the point where for 1000, you can pick up a mac, monitor, a microphone (SM58), and maybe a piano keyboard (ailbet small) and do it all yourself. Have enough pillows and mattresses laying around and you have a mini sound booth.

So why don't we have more places where independent artists can sell their own music? Even big names could still sell without the record labels. Skip the middle man. All the big names really need now are their agents who sign them up for different tours and advertising gigs. I'm sure there could be a market for smaller bands to do the same thing.

I understand the record labels were there because the costs to make a record were so prohibitive to the individual in the past. These days that just isn't the case. Digital media is easy to produce, and reproduce.

For the Apple tie-in: Can individual artists sell their music on iTunes? (If so, link me) I would think that would be a great little market to get into, the indie area. They push it so much with the iLife and Logic products.

Just what we need: another proprietary format, be it from Apple or from the record companies. An "Album" format? Well, just bundle a PDF with the Mp3s or AACs and please metadata the music files to the gills (lyrics, covers, descriptions, whatever). There, done it!

Also, don't they realize that letting us download the PDFs and read them for free could perhaps I don't know encourage us to get the whole set of songs out of curiosity?